On August 9, 1945, the U.S. Department of War released a documentary about the war in the Pacific directed against Japan entitled "Know Your Enemy: Japan," which came out as a historical review of Japan and the culture of the Japanese people, and the personal and psychological features of the Japanese soldier that made him so brutal "barbaric," according to the filmmakers, which made then-President Harry Truman describe the Japanese as "savages who hate Christianity and democracy."
The film began by talking about "the ambiguity of the Japanese and the Americans' lack of understanding of their privacy", reviewing in its first half the cultural features of Japan with much generalization, stereotyping and discrimination, with the aim of justifying the second half of the film focused on the "propaganda" of war and its justifications and necessity to restrain this "savage" nation. Although the film was not released until 1977 due to disagreements between Hollywood and the US administration, this does not detract from the significance of the film, which was based on an intelligence report before the invasion of Japan during World War II entitled "Japan's Soldier Psychology", a report detailing the "emotional and barbaric" Japanese personality traits embodied in the Japanese soldier, who is "the most dangerous thing that Japan has produced", according to the film (1).
This is the same view that has continued to paint the "character of Japan" in the Western imagination, even after the country was destroyed by two nuclear bombs and occupied and rebuilt under the watchful eyes of US military bases. What the film did not show was the context of the renaissance of the Japanese nation, which is often reduced to technical concepts such as mastery or seriousness, and ignores the religious and ideological load of this renaissance that is different in its roots and essence from the European Renaissance movement and Westernization movements around the world, other than that the film did not show the historical context that bequeathed Japan the complex of revenge and revenge that pushed it towards the course of war one day, even if it ultimately proved to be a wrong and disastrous path.
Enlightening Japan by force
In late 1995, three U.S. soldiers assaulted a twelve-year-old Japanese girl outside their military base in Okinawa, a southern Japanese prefecture, two of whom confessed to kidnapping her, a third confessed to raping her, and a Japanese court sentenced them to seven years in prison. But the gruesome crime sparked a typhoon of protests that rocked Japan-U.S. relations and brought back memories of demonstrations against the Mutual Defense and Security Treaty (ANPO) after the American occupation of Japan at the end of World War II. He quickly highlighted the entire issue of the U.S. military presence and asked the question: "What have all these Americans been doing in Japan for thirty-five years?" (2).
This question was the same one that the Japanese asked themselves at least three centuries ago, when the Japanese islands were filled with European missionaries and merchants, which made the Japanese feel dangerous and threatened, not only to their religion, but to their entire social system, and to the balance of power that began to change by the firearm that entered with European merchants, especially the Portuguese, and was known as "Arquebus", as well as by the Christianization campaigns carried out by missionaries and monks, and with it the number of Japanese Christians exceeded 300,3, including Some samurai and daimyo leaders at the beginning of the seventeenth century (<>).
The "Arquebus" is a firearm that entered Japan with European merchants, especially the Portuguese.
Japan was ruled at the time by the shogunate, a military ruler appointed by the emperor and followed by an army of samurai, and the shogunate owed allegiance only to the emperor above him, and to the aristocratic class of koge, which is closest to the emperor's entourage in the palace. The Don shogunate was the Daimyo, the powerful provincial governors, the most famous of which was Hideyoshi, who was a samurai at the same time, and served under the powerful and also famous Daimyo Nobunaga, the first attempt to unify the provinces of Japan under one strong rule with the aim of eliminating administrative and military fragmentation in the country, who succeeded in imposing his word on the shogunate to become the de facto ruler of Japan between 1568 and 1582.
Nobunaga
The social and political situation stabilized under Nobunaga and his successor Hideyoshi, and socio-religious tendencies flourished, urging adherence to the values of justice and social solidarity propagated by two religious groups, Jodo-shu and Nichiren, which, from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, had blended the teachings of Buddhism and Shintoism. The religious culture of the samurai class was strengthened, who dedicated themselves to defending to the death the sanctity of the land of Japan, which should not be set foot on by invaders.3
However, Hideyoshi adopted a policy contrary to his predecessor Nobunaga's policy of tolerating Christian missions, as he did not take strict measures to prevent them, and some documents indicate that there were Christian advisers inside the court, that one of Hideyoshi's sons converted to Christianity, and that the number of Christians in the middle of his reign increased significantly. The influx of foreign missions to Japan continued in the first phase of his reign, both the Portuguese Jesuit missions and the Spanish Franciscans from the Philippines in 1592. The shogunate at that time embarked on a military expedition abroad to explore the world, starting with Korea and China, which lasted more than five years, during which foreign missionaries enjoyed almost complete freedom.[3]
Hideyoshi
One of the most prominent of these missionaries is Father Martinez, one of the great Jesuit fathers, who took Kyoto (then the capital) as the center of his missionary activity in 1596, the same year in which a Spanish missionary ship ran aground on the coast of Japan and the investigation found that it carried a large amount of gold lira to be used in preparation for the military invasion of Japan, and this incident coincided with the return of Hideyoshi from his failed campaign to occupy China, so he ordered the crucifixion of 26 foreign missionaries and their Japanese followers in February 1597(3).
But the gold-laden ship was not the only reason for the Japanese government's decision to ban Christianity in 1637, wage a bloody liquidation war against the Christianized Japanese, and then close Japanese seaports to European merchants for more than two centuries. New Christian ideas influenced the strict value system of samurai, known as Bushido, which contained the seven pillars of militant values: justice, courage, goodness, respect, honesty, honor, and loyalty. On the social level, Shinto religion has become the subject of criticism by proponents of new missionary values, and the most dangerous for the Japanese is what happened in 1637, when the Christian daimyō gathered in Kyushu Prefecture and launched a rebellion accompanied by a bloody popular uprising against the central authority, and then the capital responded with a severe crackdown that led to the death of a large number of Christian Japanese and the flight of those who survived by sea. This was followed by the Government's historic decision to liquidate the domestic pillars that the West had built in Japan for almost a century and to enter into voluntary isolation to protect Japan from the dangers of external invasion, both cultural and military.3
New Christian ideas influenced the strict value system prevailing among the samurai, known as Bushido, which contained the seven pillars of militant values.
The Japanese decision to isolate was final and categorical, as the shogunate instructions stipulated that foreign navigation be limited to the country's ships only, imposing the death penalty on immigrants leaving Japan, and preventing "boshis" or Japanese merchants from trading directly with foreigners or storing some of their goods in Japanese warehouses. The instructions also prohibited foreign consignments from operating in Japan, and prohibited the export of Japanese weapons abroad. Japan's phase of voluntary isolation has built a strong Japanese society with fixed features and a solid social hierarchy, formed by the peasant forces, which reached 90% of the population, and were very attached to their customs and traditions, in addition to the class of craftsmen and merchants who moved to the cities that began to grow and expand, and finally the military samurai class. But Europe and the Western powers have never forgiven their monks in Japan, planning to penetrate its volcanic islands culturally, commercially, and, militarily, if necessary.
The return of the black ships. The doctrine of "kakutay"
"You know everything about Japan's economic power, and you know everything about tea ceremonies, but these are all images and masks of Japanese humility and technological capabilities. One hundred and twenty-five years of modernization we are still obscure in the eyes of Europeans and Americans, who are still not willing enough to understand these people who make so many Hondas cars."
(Japanese novelist Kenzaburu)
Japanese novelist Kenzaburo
These words were written by the Japanese novelist Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, whose novels are full of expressive tales of the deep turmoil in the Japanese personality, between the new reality and social and religious legacies, as the Japanese elude between this and that, seeking in the end to hide, just as is his habit throughout his long history. Japan decided in the seventeenth century to bury itself in secret, and while the world was filled with wars, and the newly formed armies and fleets searched for nations to conquer, the Japanese nation searched within it, and then the fever of education spread in all classes of samurai, who then participated themselves in the education of the Japanese, so religious schools attached to temples spread, along with prefectural schools for secondary or higher education "Hanko", until the percentage of educated people in Japan reached 30% of the population in 1868, which is an approximate percentage for some Western European countries at the time.3
However, that period, in which civil peace prevailed and internal wars declined, reduced the need for the role of samurai, which in turn led to new social transformations, as the samurai had to find another source of livelihood, some of them turned to agriculture, and others moved to the vicinity of the central authority in the capital or castles in major cities such as "Osaka" and "Kyoto" or even to minor castles to work as administrators and teachers in the service of daimyō, and some of them tended towards a profession of trade and industry in cities (3).
At that time, specifically at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Britain had largely succeeded in keeping the Netherlands away from the Far East and taking its place, and after Britain and France completed their positioning in most of the countries of South and East Asia in the first half of the nineteenth century, the Americans found that the international area to their trade was constantly narrowing. As a result, U.S. President Millard Fillmore ordered the commander of his fleet, Commodore Matthew Perry, stationed off the coast of Japan, to approach Tokyo Bay and issue an ultimatum to the Japanese government in July 1853, hinting that the doors should be opened to international trade, and setting the ultimatum at ten months to respond to the points contained therein.
اتفاقية "كاناغاوا" 8 مارس 1854، نصت على فتح مينائَي "شيمودا" و"هاكوداتِه" أمام التجارة الأميركية، وسمحت للأميركيين بفتح مقرات قنصلية في البلاد.
بيد أن "إييوشي"، الشوغون الحاكم وقتها، عانى من المرض، وسرعان ما تُوفي بعد أسابيع قليلة من الإنذار، تاركا شؤون الحكم لابنه الضعيف "إيسادا"، ومن ثم وقع القرار على عاتق حكومة الشوغون الجديد للرد على الإنذار الأميركي ضمن المهلة المحددة. وبعد خلاف بين رجالات الحكومة وبلاط الإمبراطور، صدر القرار النهائي بأن يتولى بعض القادة اليابانيين مسألة التفاوض مع الأميركيين، وانتهت المفاوضات باتفاقية "كاناغاوا" في 8 مارس 1854، التي نصت على فتح مينائَي "شيمودا" و"هاكوداتِه" أمام التجارة الأميركية، وسمحت للأميركيين بفتح مقرات قنصلية في البلاد، وألزمت اليابانيين بتقديم المساعدات للسفن التي تتعرض للغرق قرب سواحلهم.
Under the same agreement, the Japanese government allowed the Americans to be stationed in Edo and Osaka, but this did not end here, as this was just the beginning of a series of agreements that the major powers rushed to wrest from Japan, as the country signed a similar agreement with the Netherlands, Russia, Britain and France in 1858, with Portugal in 1860, with Prussia in 1861, and with Switzerland in 1864; and these countries successively established fixed centers for their diplomatic missions in Japan unilaterally, as Japan did not open Any diplomatic posts in those countries in turn.
As a result of these agreements, the sacred islands protected by samurai swords and saved by the shogunate from Western invasion two centuries ago became a hotbed for Westerners of all affiliations and beliefs, and to make matters worse, the Japanese made sure that these foreign traders buy gold from the Japanese at a low price to sell it at high prices that bring them a direct profit of at least 50%. The Japanese economy began to suffer from a large crowd of foreign goods, and prices rose by 300-400% between 1830 and 1865, and foreign companies benefited mainly from these crises as well as some Japanese wholesalers. The crisis exacerbated the widespread spread of cholera due to malnutrition and poor sanitary conditions, until the shogunate signed the London Protocol on International Trade in 1862 and the Trade Duties Agreement known as the Edo Agreement in 1866, to be the straw that broke the camel's back and ignited the flames of popular resentment in Japan.
Yoshinobo pursued a policy of bargaining and making concessions to resolve conflicts between the Japanese.
Popular discontent came in the form of a wide wave of assassinations of American, Russian, English, German and other subjects, and these assassinations were carried out by individuals and groups supporting the emperor's rule, including samurai fighters, who justified their actions by refusing to submit to the authority of foreigners and their unjust treaties, and rejecting the shogunate policy of the Tokugawa family and their cabinet, culminating in the samurai leaders in Chushu province opening artillery fire on European warships traversing the Shimonosuki Strait in June 1862.
The European response was not immediate, but more than a year later, French Admiral Goris ordered the bombing of Shimonosuke in June 1863, targeting fortified positions behind which a large number of anti-shogun daimyōs were stationed, followed by another bombardment in August of the same year in Kagoshima, the stronghold of the emperor's most important pro-emperor forces. However, the confrontation became more solid and fierce, as the governor of the Chōshu region led a wave of violent conflict with the Western powers and the shogunate, until his army was wiped out and bloodied in September 1863.
Not only that, but they sent a punitive campaign of three French ships, four Dutch ships, and nine English ships to completely eliminate the remnants of the anti-shogunate forces, and the campaign began with the bombing of the city of "Hiroshima" and then occupied it, prompting the samurai to agree to an armistice that was quickly overturned by the return of the civil war between the fighters rejecting the rule of the shogunate and the government allied with foreign powers.
After the death of the shogun "Iyimushi" in 1866, his successor, "Yoshinobo", pursued a policy of bargaining and making concessions to resolve conflicts between the Japanese, but the balance of power quickly turned upside down, as the emperor died and his son "Motsuhito" came, who held comprehensive national reconciliation procedures, and declared the end of the rule of the "Tokugawa" dynasty and the shogunate, and then single-handedly ruled and called himself Emperor "Meiji", meaning enlightened or just. From that moment on, the Japanese chanted loudly the slogan launched by the samurai in the name of the emperor since the entry of the "cursed" black ships into Japan's ports.
Mutsuhito, who held comprehensive national reconciliation procedures, declared the end of the rule of the Tokugawa dynasty and the shogunate, then ruled alone and called himself Emperor Meiji.
The rise and fall of the Japanese "caliphate"
"The eight draws progress.
Izumo eight-fold fence.
So that men and women can rest and calm down.
What an eight-fold fence."
These verses, adapted from one of the first poems known to Japan, revolve around its religious history closely related to its social and political history, where Japan was seen as eight clouds and eight walls, because in ancient history it consisted of eight islands, and today the visitor still finds references to the precious archaeological wall in "Izumo" (a port city in southwestern Japan), where it is said that an ancient god descended from the sky. It is on this belief that the Shinto faith, the main religion in the islands of Japan, was founded, as this god was manifested in all aspects of nature as the god "kami", there are kami of the volcano, kami of the sea, kame of agriculture, kami of the wind (kami kazi, after whom will be called the famous suicide pilots of the Japanese Air Force) and kami for almost everything; the souls of the Japanese join this god after death, and become soldiers of his power.4
One of the manifestations of this "kami" is the kami of the sun, one of the holiest manifestations of kami, and from the kami of the sun descends the dynasty of the emperor, who the Japanese believe is a descendant of the god. However, the Shinto religion blended with Buddhism and Confucianism, and there were many temples that officially represented the religion until the ancient palace temple was established in 1485 with the aim of uniting all Japanese religious temples, and the architect of this unity was the Shinto thinker "Yoshida Kantomo" who founded "Unitary Shintoism". Yoshida distinguished between two types of Shintoism: the first he called the original established Shintoism, and the second encompassing all types of Shintoism influenced by Buddhism and Confucianism. The samurai recalled these ideas at the end of the nineteenth century, and founded on them the doctrine of "kakotai", which starts from the established Shintoism and ends with the sanctity of the Japanese land, which should not be desecrated by the feet of the invaders (5).
The Japanese Renaissance and modernization processes began during the Meiji era, but they did not represent a complete break from the Tokugawa era, but rather an extension of some of its reforms. The reforms were led by the urban samurai class, who engaged in trade, culture, and education, and reform decisions usually began to emphasize Japan's unique particularity because it "includes a homogeneous people residing on holy land administered by the gods", and that the emperor is a descendant of the gods and the father of all Japanese who form one family with one state that considers them children of equal rights and duties.6
The Japanese government published Kokutai No Hongi in 1937, which was distributed to all schools of Japan as an anti-Western ideology.
Soon the emperor began to form his powerful modern army, which surrounded any attempt at rebellion or secession very harshly, and rallied around him young samurai, who had lacked their social privileges for many years, and found in the new state a way of social advancement. The religious-political profile became very clear in the Meiji era, as the government published the book "Basic Principles of National Unity" (Kokutai No Hongi) in 1937, which was distributed to all schools of Japan as an ideology against Western thought.
Culturally and socially, life in Japan was formed from a series of strict ethics that know what is permissible and what is forbidden, but the new Japanese culture has not completely cut off from the world, and has not completely rejected modernization, but this modernization was only a means to achieve the ultimate steadfastness in the face of foreigners and get rid of the humiliating agreements imposed by foreign powers and their black fleets at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Japanese researcher Motoko Katakura explains the complex relationship between heritage and modernization in Japan, stressing that it is not limited to the duality of accepting or rejecting Western science, as modernity and modern technology can only achieve its goals in any country to the extent that it is suitable for the societies transferred to it and preserves its cultural heritage. "Japan succeeded because it did not abandon its traditional cultural heritage, nor did it adopt any of the Western principles to make them fixed rules in Japanese life. Japan benefited from various Western philosophical statements and systems, but did not adopt them as they were, but only chose what suits the components of its society, and this resulted in maintaining the continuity of spiritual principles during the process of modernization and building the material pillars of Japanese society on the basis of permanent benefit from modern sciences"(6).
During World War II, Japan was one of the great powers in the world, but the wrong political path it took because of its turbulent history with the Western powers ended up in a bloody clash with the United States of America, which rejected the Japanese modernization model, and saw it as a serious threat to its hegemony, so it threw two nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and from that moment there was a fundamental coup in the structure of the modernization process within Japan, which was not caused by black ships or missionary missions, and modernization became an end and inherited traditions The features of Japanese modernity have been complicated to this day, moving away from its pre-World War II renaissance model and its mistakes.7
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